Sadly, the New Market area plays host to a lone 4-seater toilet block, bringing to the fore the state of sanitation in public places. Leave alone the visitors to the market, women employees are the worst affected for want of proper public sanitation amenities.
The situation has not prompted the concerned departments to take up the cudgels for the beleaguered employees for a decent sanitation in the market area. Says president of New Market Traders’ Association, Vinod Shirodkar, “Our association has been demanding an additional toilet block around the New Market for quite some time, but in vain. We had in the past also questioned the maintenance of the toilet since it was found closed for want of water supply. When the New Market is the home for over 200-300 women, there ought to have been more toilet blocks.”
Sulabh International engineer, Brijesh Singh, however, said that Sulabh had proposed a second toilet block at the pickup stand, but the same was later shifted to the SGPDA complex for want of land. “Land has come in the way of opening a second toilet block in the New Market area. Unless land is available, it would be next to impossible to have a second toilet block in the New Market,” Singh said.
Traders in the New Market also point accusing fingers at the lone toilet block for raising a stink. They claim that in the absence of an underground sewerage line, sewage water from the toilet finds its way into the storm water drain, raising a stink in the locality.
